A Look Back and A Look Forward (plus my self-reliance goals for 2019!)

This year I’m working toward becoming more self-reliant by expanding my skill set and learning how to provide more of life’s necessities for myself and my family. Here are a few of our 2019 farmstead and self-reliance goals (and why!).

Happy New Year! Many happy tomorrows! Auld lang syne!

Doesn’t the time just fly by? It seems like only yesterday I was excited about planning for my first full year on the farm, and now we are just a mere few hours away from the year 2019! Can you believe it, because I’m not sure I can!

Like a lot of people, I have been taking time to reflect, set goals and start planning for the coming year. Starting a family farmstead — even a small one! — takes a lot of work, and a lot of thought has to go into doing it all correctly. Unfortunately, a lot of money has to go into it too, and that’s where prioritizing and list making comes in!

Our Biggest Accomplishments of 2018

First though, a look back at 2018!

As always, we had many big goals last year — and, as seems our usual, we didn’t get them all accomplished. Still, I think we managed to get a lot done while also being mindful and present parents to the girls, for Jasper having a more-than-full-time job, and then also losing him to sickness for a couple of months right at harvest time!

What We got done last year //

Built a duck house, pond and yard

Got some ducklings

Planted an herb garden

Grew a HUGE vegetable garden

Filled our pantry and freezers with homegrown food

Cleaned out the greenhouse

Started planting perennial flowers

Cut down overwhelming amount of blackberries

Got a new tractor!

Hooked up a separate water cistern for the garden

We didn’t get everything done though (we never do), and as tempted as I am to write another big “to do” list for the coming year filled with absolutely everything I want to do out here ever, I know that choosing perhaps five big goals is more likely to end in success.

Our Farmstead Goals for 2019

These are the top five goals/projects that Jasper and I want to accomplish out here on the farm this year. Obviously there are a lot more smaller tasks we want to and will do in the coming months, but these five are the big projects we’ll be focusing on:

What We Want to do this year //

Get rid of piled up junk

Fence in the lower field

Start planting our fruit orchard

Build a new chicken coop

Upgrade the duck house

Yes, I know, the first three of these goals were on last year’s list, too. At least I’m consistent! Jasper and I have agreed that the first three of these must get done this year, and while it would be nice to complete the other two, they aren’t as important to us.

My self-reliance goals for 2019

My other big goal for 2019 is to become more self-reliant. I want to expand my skill-set and learn some new things that will help us become more self-sufficient here on the farmstead.

To me, self-reliance means the ability to provide — by myself — the things my family and I need to live and thrive every day, with skills such as gardening, foraging, and food preservation. It allows me to be less dependent on the vastly complex and unstable agricultural systems that dominate our grocery store shelves (think of all those food recalls!), the dwindling fossil fuels that almost every aspect of our society depends on, and the ever-increasing amounts of money (and time working for said money) that it all requires. Instead of being dependent on others, self-reliance allows me to rely on myself and the smaller, knowable, community around me.

Increasing our self-reliance and accomplishing some of these goals will help us do more for ourselves, and save money in the process!

Well 2019, ready or not, here you come! And you, my dear readers, thank you so much for sticking with me — you are more of an encouragement than you will ever know. What are some of your goals for the coming year? Are you interested in increasing your self-reliance and sufficiency? Please let me know in the comments below!

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This post is part of a Self-Reliance Challenge organized by a group of bloggers and websites. The challenge is designed as a way to share ideas for how to increase your self-reliance and live a more abundant lifestyle.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

Great goals! Where did you get your cistern? Do you have a picture of it on your blog somewhere that I missed? We had ordered our thousand gallon tank online but I saw the other day that Home Depot actually has some in their parking lot in Warrenton. Oh yeah we are wanting to try raising meat chickens this summer as well… I’m a little nervous but know it needs to be done 😏

No pic of the cistern on the blog … it’s a black 1500 gallon one that was already sitting in the woods when we moved here. My father-in-law bought it somewhere … maybe in Longview? I’ll have to ask him! I’m nervous about the chickens too, although I’m assured that they’re so dumb that I will be more than ready to butcher them when the time is right (and seeing as how I feel toward my layers, I believe them!)

I love that you move to your property and the greenhouse was already there and you found the cistern in the woods. Much better than the crap we found on our property thus far like the old tire the former owner must have tried to burn in the woods 🙄. Yeah for chickens the definite first thing is to not name any of them…although I don’t know the names of any of my neighbors chickens and I still can’t imagine grabbing them and putting them in the cone…

Yes, so lucky! Although, you should see some of the other stuff we found out here! There were (still are I guess, just piled up now) about a dozen toilets and sinks scattered about, not to mention the old school bus rusting away in the lower woodlot (that doesn’t have a title, so will stay there forever apparently …) It’s always a treasure hunt around here, lol!

oh a late response but as soon as you brought up having a school bus on your property we found out from our neighbor that along the creek hidden under the trees and blackberry underbrush are at least one and a half cars… And it turns out she was right as we found about 25% so far of an old Chevy Impala wagon, among other bits and pieces… It’s literally buried against the creek bed which sucks!

Great goals Lacey and love the image of your garden. It’s so stinking exciting being able to grow and can food to fill the pantry. Building a homestead does take time, I know…but love the enthusiasm of getting it done.
Very much enjoyed reading your goals. Goodness, seeing other’s goals make me get super excited. New ideas and new things to learn!

We got a new tractor this year too – and will be getting rid of an overwhelming amount of blackberries this coming weekend (the first weekend of 2019) – weather permitting of course. Good luck with your goals for the new year!

Hi Lacey,
Sounds like you have a lot of really good goals. I like that one of your goals is to plant a fruit orchard. That is a big venture and I hope you really succeed in doing that. Cleaning up junk is a great goal too. I hope you meet all your goals and are able to achieve each and every one. Have a healthy, happy & blessed New Years!

I LOOOOOVE my ducks! They have so much more personality than the chickens, and are so hardy and better suited to our rainy climate. Plus, they lay their eggs every single day, even through the winter with no supplemental light! They were a fantastic choice for us, and I’m sure you’ll love them, too!

Hey Lacey! Oh, you’ll LOVE having meyer lemons! We have a tree and a few other citrus, and it’s wonderful to have so much of it, especially since my husband and I are citrus people. The lemons come in handy for lemonade, which we love. Good luck on your 2019 goals!

I’m laughing about the “treasure hunt” in the woods when you first moved in (mentioned in the comments). Maybe all homesteads are like that? We had old rusty farm equipment, a hundred tires and so much more. I’ve dug up rusty tractor parts and tools. One of our goals is to continue cleaning this place up!

I enjoyed reading your goals for the coming year. I hope you can put a big dent in that list.

I love this post. I think it’s a great idea. I used to challenge myself a lot when I worked in industry but since the chaos of moving to France and tonnes of family issues pulling me this way and that, we just follow the plan of..do something every day till it gets done. But this year big plans and so I think I will follow your idea. Also interested on your link.